1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image recording method, and particularly to an image recording method in which an image is recorded on a recording material conveyed to a recording section of a photographic printer or the like
2. Description of the Related Art
There has conventionally been known a photographic printer in which a film image recorded on a photographic film such as a negative film is exposed onto a photographic printing paper or the like and a photographic print is prepared. In a photographic printer of this type, an improvement in processing capacity (the number of images recorded per unit time) is an important problem. For this reason, there has conventionally been proposed a photographic printer in which photographic printing papers previously cut in accordance with the size of a photographic print are respectively supplied for a plurality of conveying lines along which the photographic printing papers are conveyed to an exposure section of a photographic printer or the like and a plurality of photographic printing papers conveyed parallel with one another via the conveying lines are exposed in parallel in the exposure section (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 8-314022, 6-347905, 6-347907, and 6-347914).
On the other hand, when a photographic printing paper cut to a predetermined size is conveyed to and exposed in the exposure section in the same way as in the above-described photographic printer, it is technically very difficult to convey the photographic printing paper, for the exposing operation, so as to be positioned at a fixed location and at a fixed orientation at high accuracy in the exposure section. Optical components of an exposure system are each generally disposed fixedly in the exposure section. Accordingly, when the irradiation range of exposure light (light transmitted through a film image, or laser beam modulated in accordance with a film image) is provided to coincide with the size of the photographic printing paper, there is a possibility that a very noticeable useless unexposed portion is formed on the photographic printing paper (i.e., photographic print) due to the variation in position and orientation of the photographic printing paper during exposure.
For this reason, particularly in a photographic printer in which an image is exposed onto the photographic printing paper that has been cut, exposure light is irradiated, for image exposure, over a region which is greater than that in which exposure light needs to be actually irradiated on the photographic printing paper so as to prevent formation of an unexposed portion on the photographic printing paper, taking into account that the variation in position and orientation of the photographic printing paper during exposure is caused by the fact that the photographic printing paper is located at any position in a predetermined range in which the photographic printing paper is supposed to be located.
Namely, as the format of a photographic print, there exist a "bordered" in which a white border having a fixed width is provided at the outer periphery of an image recording portion of a photographic print and a "no border" in which an image is recorded on the whole surface of the photographic print without providing the white border. When the "no border" is specified as a print format, the photographic printer operates to apply exposure light to a range which is sufficiently greater than the size of the photographic printing paper. On the other hand, when the "bordered" is specified, the region on the photographic printing paper in which light is exposed is made smaller than the size of the photographic printing paper by a print mask that shields the exposure light for an area of the white border, wherein the exposure light is applied to a region which is sufficiently greater than the opening of the print mask to allow exposure of an image.
However, in the foregoing, a part of the exposure light is not applied to a photosensitive material and a part of the film image is not exposed onto the photographic printing paper accordingly. As a result, an image of a finished photographic print results in omission of a part of the film image. For this reason, there exists such a drawback that, when a main subject to be printed is located at a peripheral edge of the film image, a part of the main subject is omitted from the finished photographic print.
Further, in order to solve the above-described drawback, there may be proposed a method in which, particularly when "bordered" is specified as the print format, the exposure light is applied to a region which is smaller than the size of the photographic printing paper without using the print mask. However, when considered that the position and orientation of the photographic printing paper each vary in a case in which images are exposed on photographic printing papers provided in a plurality of lines, it was difficult to set the width of the white border fixedly. Particularly, in the case of the "bordered" photographic print, an unexposed portion is very noticeable on the finished print unless the white border has a fixed width. Accordingly, the above exposure method is not practical.